


EPOCH

by littletoes101



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Gen, de-extinction project, please stick around this gets really interesting i promise, sciency stuff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-06-15 23:30:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15424035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littletoes101/pseuds/littletoes101
Summary: After an experiment to bring extinct animals back to life succeeds, Kaito Momota and others find themselves facing a complex issue when the animals turn out to have human intelligence: what makes a person a person? Based off of an original novel. Please do ask before using any elements of this story. I do not own the DR characters, but I do own the concept and all of the animal characters.





	EPOCH

“This one isn’t viable, either.”

Kaito leans back on his heels as Izuru’s hand slides down the test tube. There’s an uncharacteristic frown on his face; he rarely wears any kind of emotion on his face.

“Issat the last one?” Kaito asks, lacing his fingers behind his head as Izuru steps around him. The frown is still on his face. “Y’know, it seems like it’d really suck to be doin’ this day after day. Just… a whole bunch of dead baby animals.” Animals whose names Kaito can’t pronounce or remember, but animals nonetheless. Many of them. Dead, after failed de-extinction experiments. He thinks there was one, a species of deer, that managed to survive for a few minutes after birth, but it didn’t last.

“There’s one more,” Izuru says. He steps up to the final test tube, pressing his finger against it gently. “But I don’t expect much.” While he checks all of the doo-dads and thing-a-ma-jigs that attach to it, Kaito hums and walks around in circles. He does what Izuru says, and doesn’t expect much.

Then he hears the clatter of Izuru’s clipboard falling to the ground, and Kaito jumps a good six inches in the air. He’s able to recover quickly, though, and he whips his head towards Izuru.

“The hell?” Kaito asks, and rushes instinctively over to Izuru’s side. The elder scientist’s fingers are trembling as he presses them back to the tube.

“This one,” Izuru breathes.

“This one’s viable. It’s alive. There’s a _heartbeat_.”

Suddenly, everything changes.

* * *

 

Barely a month goes by before the incubation period for the viable fetus ends, and Kaito finally gets to figure out what the hell the thing is. He’s told that he’s lucky he’s been able to get this far to begin with, because he’s not even _in_ this department. He’s working with the space division, that has nothing to do with the biology and species conservation unit. The only reason he’s even here is because the head scientist — Izuru Kamukura — thinks he might be useful in the long run for housing the animals.

Even so, that doesn’t stop him from being curious. So when Izuru walks into the control room with something swaddled in cloth in his arms, Kaito jumps up and starts to head over. The cloth is blue, and Izuru is supporting the top of it like one might do to an infant. His eyes are soft, and his breathing is slow. Steady. His gaze never once moves from the bundle in his arms.

“Come quietly if you come at all,” Izuru warns, holding the bundle a little closer to his chest. “He needs his sleep if he will grow properly.”

“Geez. You say that like it’s a real kid,” Kaito laughs, but abruptly stops when Izuru shoots him a deadly glare. As Kaito approaches, he peers over Izuru’s shoulder to get a look at the newborn creature.

A pair of very blue eyes stare up at him, and Kaito’s greeted with the face of a _Smilodon fatalis_ cub. He’s sucking on one of his paws, making soft little mewling noises every so often. Izuru bounces him a little in his arms and smiles.

“He does not have a name yet,” Izuru says, shifting so he can take the cub’s free paw in one of his hands. Kaito can hardly believe what he’s looking at as Izuru rubs the cub’s paw in his hand, extending tiny claws before letting them retract. “They performed the process of removing him from the tube last night. He was born at ten o’ clock P.M. exactly.”

“Whoa.” Kaito resists the urge to touch the cub, feeling like Izuru might whack him if he does. “Gee. So he’s… really real then, huh?”

“Of course, though it is hard to believe.” Izuru rubs his thumb on the back of the cub’s paw. “One of these animals has not roamed the planet in over ten thousand years. He was created from leftover DNA from a cat who died nearly twenty thousand years ago. It should not be possible, and yet…”

Izuru sighs, and it sounds almost dreamy.

“And yet here he is.”

Kaito goes quiet for a moment. “So, uh, you gonna keep him then? To raise him?”

Izuru goes almost scarily silent, the smile on his face turning so quickly into a frown Kaito almost thinks he imagined it. “I cannot. I can only keep him for two weeks, and then one of the others who have signed up to foster will have to take him.”

“Hm.” Kaito puts his chin in his palm. “Is it too late to sign up for that?”

Two weeks later, the cub is in Kaito’s arms as he carries him to his car to take him home.


End file.
